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Senate Hears Testimony on LGBT Discrimination in Workplace For First Time in 2012

Earlier this year, Kylar Broadus became the first transgendered witness to testify before the Senate. Broadus was born a woman and underwent gender reassignment surgery in the 1990s. He testified in support of the Employee Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), a proposal aimed at preventing discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in the workplace.

Broadus claims he was forced out of a lucrative job in the financial sector in the 1990s because of his gender identity and had no legal recourse. While Broadus is currently employed as a lawyer and professor at Lincoln University, he asserts he will never recover financially. Broadus explained:

While my supervisors could tolerate a somewhat masculine-appearing black woman, they were not prepared to deal with my transition to being a black man. With growing despair, I watched my professional connections, support, and goodwill evaporate, along with my prospects of remaining employed. I was harassed until I was forced to leave. I received harassing telephone calls hourly from my supervisor some days. I received assignments after hours that were due by 9 a.m. the next morning. The stress was overwhelming.

Statistics have shown that transgendered individuals are discriminated against in the workplace at a greater rate that those with a traditional gender identity. They also firmly establish that transgendered people are less employed and less well compensated than their non-transgendered counterparts.

The Employee Non-Discrimination Act has been introduced to Congress nearly every year since 1994 with no success.